


Mechanical Birdsong

by Duane_S_Hall



Category: Original Work
Genre: Birds, F/M, Flash Fic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:15:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23633716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duane_S_Hall/pseuds/Duane_S_Hall
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: The Abyss's April 2020 Flash Fiction Compendium





	Mechanical Birdsong

Out among the cottonwood and hackberry trees, the newlyweds walked away from the rest of it all. Life’s obligations rarely gave them a chance to escape; when one came they were silent in its seizure. They wouldn’t dare to speak of their trip, not even to each other, out of a superstitious fear that fate would curse them with new distractions. So it was that she led him to her spot in the woods, untouched from childhood, where the mechanical growl of modern life couldn’t reach.

Mark pulled his sweat-soaked t-shirt over his head and basked in his wife’s embarrassed glare. “What’s the problem? We have more privacy out here than at home.” Birds chirped and twittered through their urgent season. He remembered their mornings spent on the patio where she always seemed to be listening to him, even when he had nothing to say. “Can you pick apart the bird calls?”

Rose heard the birds as orchestra members, testing their instruments for a concert that had already begun. “Okay, so the ones that sound like the world’s cutest truck ignition switch when the engine doesn’t want to turn over? Those are wrens. And the one that sounds like you can’t tighten a bolt because you stripped it? That’s a tit.”

He easily resisted the urge to make a joke since he didn’t have one. “Which one’s the sparrow?”

“The sparrows around here stay near homes and barns. It’s like clockwork, or calendar-work. They build their nest in the awnings, lay their eggs, hatch their offspring, and feed them until one day they scream and fight until all any of them want to do is leave. Then they come back next Spring and it’s all new all over again.”

“I think they grow up, realize what they had and miss it.” He had rested against a sheltering hackberry tree and considered how it must feel for bears. He writhed against the bark as it scratched at his hairy backside and he saw that look in her eyes again, the one that he no longer mistook for embarrassment.

She ran all of her fingers through the hair on his chest in the way he always seemed to like. She had no reason to rush. Her hands eventually drifted to his shoulders as his hands found their place in the small of her back. “You’re going to have to lift me if-Ah!” A shock of glee ran through her core as he hoisted her into the air and cradled her in the strength of his bare arms. She buried her face in his neck and lost herself in his scent.

They held each other in silence beneath the birdsong until he had to hear her voice. “How long until our little ones fight to leave the nest?”

“If they’re like me,” she mused, “then they’ll hate us in fifteen years and love us again four years later. And if they’re like you-”

He’d release his burdens with a deep sigh if he could, but settled for momentary relief. “Then they’ll inherit the nest far too soon.”

“It begins again,” she said and no more words were needed. She lifted his chin to stare deeply into his eyes, hoping to connect with what stirred behind them. He lowered her to the ground and let her control the pace as their jeans and underwear were undone. She accepted him fully as a new life began between them.


End file.
